|
| [an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
|  | |
Sleepy Hollow
Verdict: Heads up: Tim Burton is back.
Details: Starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Michael Gambon and Miranda Richardson. Directed by Tim Burton. Rated R for graphic horror violence and gore, and for a scene of sexuality. 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Rate it: Write your own review
Review: With the head-rollingly entertaining "Sleepy Hollow," director Tim Burton returns to peak form, delivering the best Hammer horror movie that never was. A blend of scary swordplay, witchcraft and self-spoofing humor, it's a brew served with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Pedro Almodovar, Burton is among the few working directors who create a signature climate in their movies, from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" through his unbalanced (but still fun) "Mars Attacks!" "Hollow" unfolds in a landscape that's like a John Constable painting forested with the tortured trees you find in fairy tales illustrated by Arthur Rackham. The constant mist is the same ghostly gray as the sheep in the fields, and sunlight almost never touches the scene. (Much of the movie was shot on sound stages.)
This is the gloomy upstate New York setting, circa 1799, where Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent by his superior (a cameo by Christopher Lee, longtime star of those 1960s Hammer films). In Washington Irving's story, Ichabod was a teacher, but here he undergoes a career change. He's now a constable investigating tales of the Headless Horseman, a phantom blamed for three deaths, and soon to cause a whole bunch more, despite the presence of the big-city detective.
One of the movie's running jokes is that the fastidious, fussy Ichabod's forensic assessment of the situation is usually two or three steps behind the townsfolks'. These Hollowites include Ichabod's host, Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon), his wife (Miranda Richardson) and daughter, Katrina (Christina Ricci), who gravitates toward the pallid newcomer despite the jealous attentions of her cousin Brom (Casper Van Dien).
Rounding out the cast are character actors Jeffrey Jones, Ian McDiarmid and Michael Gough as leaders of the town, who clearly know more than they care to reveal. Burton's girlfriend, Lisa Marie, turns up in dream scenes as Ichabod's spell-casting mother, and Christopher Walken (fitted with pointy teeth and creepy contact lenses) plays the Headless Horseman in flashbacks (prior, natch, to his own decapitation).
Among the movie's memorable images are a levitating witch and a witch whose eyes pop out on stalks, a portal to hell that allows the Horseman (fully mounted) to make spectacular entrances, a bagful of ghoulish medical instruments for Ichabod, eerie pumpkin-headed scarecrows, and an iron maiden that gushes more blood than the elevators at the Overlook Hotel.
While many of these sights are distinctly Burton's babies, he draws on other movies for inspiration. An action scene in a creaky windmill pays tribute to James Whale's "Frankenstein," which Burton previously quoted in his short "Frankenweenie." The dank storybook setting recalls the atmosphere of Neil Jordan's Freudian fairy tale, "The Company of Wolves."
Andrew Kevin Walker's script blends the convoluted and the intentionally predictable. It's easy to guess the identity of the behind-the-scenes villain just by noticing the way a key character is shoved into the background for half the movie. But that seems to be Burton's point: "Sleepy Hollow" is less about whodunit than how it's done. The fun comes from the collaborative work of the full film team: production designer Rick Heinrichs' textured gray sets, Colleen Atwood's lush costumes and Danny Elfman's shivery score.
The movie's steady comic relief is a useful balance for the Horseman's single-minded attacks, which spare neither men, women nor children. Burton stages these action scenes with impressive timing and a casual brutality as precise as the blade that keeps whacking off heads. It helps that the Horseman's fight scenes and stunts are performed with athletic menace by Ray Park, whose Darth Maul was one of the few bright spots in "The Phantom Menace."
In his third film with Burton, Depp has a fine time repeatedly getting things wrong, or going into a virginal dither at the sight of a spider. His hysterical reaction after an encounter with the Horseman is a comic highlight. In a departure from her usual snide-teenager roles, Ricci gets to play an old-fashioned heroine (with a few tricks up her sleeve); her blond wig and porcelain skin give her the glow of a Botticelli goddess.
Burton was reportedly upset that "Hollow" got an R rating, but the frequent head-loppings--and their realism, thanks to sharp special effects--justify that ruling. The decapitations include an uncredited star of an earlier Burton film, losing his head in a prologue that sets up the movie's wicked sense of humor, galloping momentum, and ability to scare and surprise.
Chilling special effects and a touch of humor cast their spell as the Headless Horseman rides again
In Washington Irving's story, Ichabod was a teacher, but here he undergoes a career change. He's now a constable investigating tales of the Headless Horseman, a phantom blamed for three deaths, and soon to cause a whole bunch more, despite the presence of the big-city detective.
— Steve Murray, Cox News Service
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
Bellbrook graduation 2012
Fairfield Senior 2012 graduation
Kroger Aquatic Center opens
